Suspicious letter writer is targeting Ney, by Ted Wendling

The anonymous letters began arriving in November -- so meticulously detailed and so well aligned with events unfolding in a national scandal that they appeared plausible.

Since 2001, the letters claimed, Robert Vincenzo, the mayor of St. Clairsville, and U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, a longtime city resident already swept up in the scandal, had been involved in an elaborate plot to strong-arm a local trailer park owner into selling a prime piece of Interstate 70 real estate.

Ney and Vincenzo hoped to redevelop the property with Indian casino money provided by now-notorious convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, claimed the writer, who sent let ters to The Plain Dealer and several people in the St. Clairsville area.

And there was more -- much more: The writer, who identified himself as a St. Clairsville utilities employee, claimed to have witnessed the payment of thousands of dollars in cash bribes to Ney, Vincenzo and others.

He said he had helped Vincenzo shred documents pertaining to Ney, Abramoff and Ney's American Liberty political action committee.

And he said city officials had retaliated against the trailer park owner for fighting the annexation of his interstate property by sending him tens of thousands of dollars in phony utility bills. All of those explosive allegations, it appears, are false.

A close examination of various documents the anonymous writer included with the letters shows that some have been altered and others are fictitious. In addition, numerous attempts by The Plain Dealer to identify the writer -- who included several personal details in the letters -- concluded that no such city employee exists.

Still, despite vociferous assertions by Vincenzo, St. Clairsville officials and Ney's lawyer that the anonymous allegations are pure fiction, they have seeped into the public record in a civil lawsuit that West Virginia resident Samuel L. Harris has filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus.
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